The 2003 Fourth of July weekend proved to be a turning point in the life of Phyllis Lows.

Not feeling well, her skin began to turn yellow, and her urine became dark. Lows knew she needed to see a doctor immediately. After a trip to the emergency room, doctors found a tumor in her pancreas obstructing her bile duct.

"It sounds strange to say, but it was a blessing in disguise because they were able to catch it very early," says Lows.

"It" was a pancreatic cancer. Lows was sent to David C. Linehan, MD, at the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, who scheduled Lows for a Whipple procedure immediately. The Whipple procedure is an intricate abdominal operation that involves removal of the pancreas, a portion of the stomach, the duodenum, common bile duct, gallbladder and surrounding lymph nodes.

Dr. Linehan is a surgeon in the Section of Hepatobiliary, Pancreatic and Gastrointestinal Surgery at Washington University, which is headed by Steven Strasberg, MD. In 2003, the group performed 125 Whipple procedures, making the Siteman Cancer Center one of the highest volume centers for this type of surgery nationwide. In a recently published study of 185 Whipples done by this group of Washington University physicians, not a single death was reported. A measure of this success is due to an innovative procedure they pioneered to prevent postoperative leakage after re-connection of the remaining pancreas to the intestine.

Within a week of her surgery, Lows was released from the hospital and is thankful for how everything turned out. She was enrolled in a rigorous clinical trial testing a new combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy coupled with immune stimulation. Fortunately, now one year post-op, she remains cancer-free.

Says Lows, "I have nothing but good words to say about Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Dr. Linehan and the whole team."